Windsor Agrees To New Three-Year Teachers Contract

Agreement Includes Additional Instructional Time

WINDSOR — — The school board and the Windsor Education Association have agreed on a new three-year contract.

The teachers union ratified the contract proposal Nov. 19 and the school board approved it at a special meeting Thursday.

"We felt that it's a very student-centered contract, particularly in the increase in instructional time," Lisa Bress, co-president of the Windsor Education Association, said Friday. "The compensation is a recognition of the teachers' commitment to students and the community. Students were first and foremost in our minds."

The agreement calls for annual overall increases to the salary account of 3 percent, 3.65 percent and 3.3 percent over the three years. Pay increases will vary from teacher to teacher.

In the first year of the contract, employee payments for out-of-network coinsurance will increase 30 percent, and in-patient hospital co-payments will increase from $200 to $300.

In the second year of the contract, the insurance premium cost share will increase from 18 to 19 percent, emergency room and outpatient surgery co-payments will increase from $100 to $150 and urgent care co-payments will increase from $75 to $100.

In the third year, the premium cost share increases from 19 to 20 percent, doctor visit copays increase from $25 to $30 and the inpatient hospital co-pay increases to $400.

"We felt the increases were in line with what's expected across the state," Bress said.

Instructional time is also scheduled to increase by five minutes per day in each contract year for a total of 15 additional minutes per day by the end of the contract.

Teachers will also have four scheduled afterschool meetings per month. Currently they have three.

Superintendent Jeffrey Villar said Friday that the contract strikes a balance between the need of the school system to increase instructional time and fairly compensating teachers for the additional time they spend in the classroom.

Each year, classroom time will increase by 15 hours over the course of the school year, he said.

"By the end of year three, that's 45 hours," Villar said. "That's almost a week and time is important."